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after david hicks .....
The Obama administration made it clear long ago that it intended to detain 48 Guantanamo inmates indefinitely and without trial. We have been critical of that policy both because the right to a trial is central to American notions of due process and because the administration's criteria for indefinite detention are too broad. These are detainees the government considers too dangerous to be released, but who can't be tried because the evidence against them either wasn't preserved, was tainted by torture or doesn't link them to particular terrorist plots.
Now it's reported that the administration is preparing an executive order that will provide for regular review of whether these detainees should continue to be held. So-called periodic review boards would be composed of military and civilian members, and inmates would have the right to be represented by counsel.
This arrangement is an improvement over a system established by the George W. Bush administration, in which a panel of military officials evaluated requests for release and inmates had no legal representation. But it falls short of affording inmates the protections they would enjoy in a trial (even in a military commission).
- By John Richardson at 30 Dec 2010 - 9:00pm
- John Richardson's blog
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the bottomless black hole called guantanamo .....
Political prisoners? Surely, that can't be right, can it? Surely, it's only dictatorships in far-flung corners of the world who hold political prisoners, and not the United States of America?
Sadly, no.
As the "War on Terror" prison established by President Bush begins its tenth year of operations, it begins to be forgotten that President Obama swept into office issuing an executive order promising to close the prison within a year, but failed spectacularly to do so.
The bleak truth is that, for a majority of the 173 men held at Guantanamo, their chances of being released, or of receiving anything resembling justice, have receded to such an extent in the last two years that most face indefinite detention without charge or trial and may still be in Guantanamo a year from now, two years from now, or even five, ten or twenty years from now.
Nine Years Later: The Political Prisoners of Guantanamo
murder by government .....
The Second World War lasted for six years, and at the end of it prisoners of war were released to resume their lives. At Guantánamo, on the other hand, the prison has just marked the ninth anniversary of its opening, and on Thursday the Pentagon announced that Awal Gul, a 48-year old Afghan prisoner, who had been held for nine years without charge or trial and was scheduled to be held forever, died in a shower after suffering a heart attack.
Gul had never been held as a prisoner of war, and despite the US government's assertions that he could be held forever, no one in a position of authority - neither President Bush nor President Obama - had ever adequately demonstrated that he constituted a threat to the United States.
Guantanamo Prisoner Dies After Being Held For Nine Years Without Charge Or Trial